At a time when many public school teachers and administrators are limiting instructional goals to the lower level objectives found on standardized tests, there is a need for classroom activities derived from higher purposes. Conceptual analysis, which relates abstract concepts to the lives of students, meets this need. While focusing primarily on the composing process, the technique also encourages the use of cooperative learning strategies, critical thinking skills, and interdisciplinary teaming situations. When conducting an analysis of a specified concept, students write six "cases," or stories which exemplify the concept, but without using the concept or term in question. Students writing about the concept of freedom, for example, will write stories illustrating what freedom is, what freedom is not, what freedom may or may not be, what freedom is from a group or individual perspective, and what freedom is from a "science fiction" perspective. As students compose the cases, they list related terms which are later used to form a definition of the concept. Finally, the stories are published, and a presentation is prepared which applies the concept to an issue in the everyday lives of the students. (Six references are appended.) (ARH)